BSN Redux

There are a few things I REALLY don't miss about being a teacher. Besides the long hours, which were really why I decided to call it quits, the one thing I never liked was Back-to-School Night. It was always so awkward and weird and rushed and tiring and and and. BSN is tomorrow, and I'll miss Heidi when she's there, but I won't be sad that I'm home.

On another topic, one of the things I love about this blog is that it offers me an anecdotal record of the last 17 and a half years of my life, including all my recorded thoughts on Back-to-School Night. It was kind of fun and illuminating to review them, and if you have any mind to do so yourself, just click the tag at the bottom of this post.

And as for the occasion itself, at least I got some writing out of it!

Better than Meh

 I finally did it.

After decades of trying to figure out a way to make Back to School Night more fun and interactive for parents (and myself!), it occurred to me the other day that I could structure my presentation using the online quiz game I favor for my students. 

So yesterday afternoon I went through the slide presentation I would otherwise have used and turned every topic into a true-false or multiple-choice question. Then I created a QR code for the game sign-in and taped a copy to each table. As parents entered, I gave them the option to scan the code and play along. Once the game began, I paused after every question to clarify or add a little information, just as I do when kids play,

The format worked great! For example, the first question was True or false, this is Ms. S's first year at our school. After revealing the answer, I was able to give a little background on myself and, in my co-taught classes, allow my colleagues to do the same. 

Ten minutes later, we applauded the winners. I had given each parent a card to write questions on, and they all came back blank. The final question of the game had been a poll: How has BSN been so far? The options were Great! Good! Meh. and Needs improvement. Everyone was gracious enough to pick Great!

Best of all? Several kids told me today how much their parents enjoyed the class. And I didn't even give them Jolly Ranchers!

The Worst Night of the Year

In all my years of teaching, I have yet to find anyone, either teacher or parent, who enjoys Back to School Night. 

I counted my blessings and then counted them again the last couple of years when the entire event was reorganized to be first asynchronous and then virtual due to the pandemic. But we are back in person with a vengeance, (Social distancing is over, an administrator told me flatly, the other day), and so BSN is on the calendar for tonight, in its original, time-honored, conformation. 

Even as I type, I am dreading bolting my dinner, changing my clothes, returning to school, greeting parents with forced jocularity, and rushing through the same boring information five times, so I can go home late and drag my tired self back to work in the morning for another full day of corralling kids. It is a historic example of how little teacher time is valued.

At the very least? The ordeal should count as a floating half day toward our contract time. A little acknowledgement of and compensation for our inconvenience and overtime would be a step in the right direction.

Flipping Fantastic

Without exaggeration, I would have to say that one of the best things, if not THE best thing, to happen to me in 2020 is the pass that the teachers at our school got from participating live in a virtual Back-to-School Night. A quick review of my blog posts from the last 12 Septembers will reveal my fraught relationship with this mandatory evening that neither teachers nor parents seem to enjoy. What can you say about an event that no one likes it, but everyone feels compelled to attend?

At any rate, our school's leadership team, recognizing the additional challenges of organizing an effective remote event, decided to flip the script and provide all of the information from teachers up front while planning a town hall format with a limited presentation and plenty of time for Q&A with a panel, rather than the entire staff.

Basically? We had to create informational videos, but after that, they gave us the night off! 

Yay! I love it!

Even so, you know what I'm doing right now, don't you? 

Right! I am watching the town hall.

Because I haven't missed a BSN since 1993, and I guess I'm not ready to start now.

Tough Audience

Years ago, my sister asked me how my new students were. "Well," I answered, "they are smaller than the kids last year, and not quite as quick thinkers." I paused. "I guess they're kind of short and stupid!"

I was joking, of course, but now that my 27th  Back-to-school-night has come and gone, I've decided that, like their children, parents, too have a group identity. Some years, it's kind of a reunion-- the parents know each other, some of them know me, and there is a pervasive party vibe. Other years, the parents seem to really get the program and what we are trying to do with their kids in a writing workshop. They are excited and engaged by the possibilities I present. Some years there are a lot of characters that stand out-- eccentric parents, outspoken parents, one year I even had some drunk parents. Those make for good stories to swap the next day at lunch.

But this year? It was very low key. No one laughed at my little jokes, and no one had any questions about my presentation. A couple told me that their kids like the class, and that's always nice to hear, but in general, it was kind of drudgery for all involved. I'd like to blame it on the information overload in the 20 minute video we all have to watch at the beginning; it doesn't set a very inviting tone, but to be honest? I've overcome it in the past.

I think these parents are just tall and boring.

A New Approach?

Not yet as popular as Marie Kondo but with every chance of getting his own Netflix show is Garr Reynolds and his concept of Presentation Zen. For anyone who has ever sat through an excruciating slideshow, or worse yet, created and presented one, Reynolds has a set of guidelines meant to make your presentation more engaging and more memorable.

As a teacher? This notion speaks loudly to me. Streamlining my lessons is always my goal. And as the victim of many, Many, MANY boring slideshow-based presentations?

Back to school night is my first project. Here are the tenets I am using to design my 27th BSN presentation:

1. Think before you turn on the computer. I have all my notes on a legal pad.
2. Keep your audience in mind. What do the parents want to know when they leave?
3. Have a solid structure. In progress
4. Have a clear theme. Guiding question for the year: How can we become better writers? 
5. Remove the non-essential. I usually run out of time. Why?
6. Hook 'em early. In progress
7. Show a clear conflict. Writing is a struggle and so is working hard to improve on anything. 
8. Demonstrate a clear change. Supporting writers in their practice will help them improve.
9. Show or do the unexpected. Um....
10. Make 'em feel. Writing is thinking, and writing is an effective way to show what you know, and connect with others.
11. Be authentic. Aw, shucks.

Friday at Last

The morning after Back-to-school Night everyone’s dragging. A colleague stopped by my room before the bell to ask a question, pausing as he entered. “Wow! You look as tired as everyone feels!” he said.

I raised my eyebrows and let it go. It wasn’t the most sensitive remark, but I knew that he was tired, too.

Hopefully we’ll all get some rest this weekend. 

Way Back When

My sixth grade team is called the Dolphins, and so as we tidied up our area yesterday afternoon in preparation for B2SN, one of my colleagues broke into song. "They call him Flipper, Flipper, Flipper..."

"...faster than lightning," I joined in.

We both stopped dead. "Do you know the rest?" she asked.

"No," I shrugged. "It was a little before my time. I have a vague memory of black and white Lloyd Bridges in swim trunks."

"I used to watch it," she said, "but I never really knew the song. I only know the beginning because my fiance sings it every time I mention our team."

We laughed and continued stapling pictures of dolphins onto the bulletin board in the hall.

Today the same colleague came into my room and picked up a game one of my homeroom students had accidentally left out. "Perfection!"

"I know," I answered."It's an oldie but a goodie."

She nodded her head approvingly.

"Wait!" I teased her. "Don't tell me you used to play it while you were watching Flipper!"

Time and a Half?

In the last 48 hours I have produced, voiced, animated and added music to a video overview of my course for parents who might be too inconvenienced by our lack of parking (tell me about it!) to attend back to school night (but don't worry! I'll be there until 9:30 tomorrow night), attended four meetings and facilitated one of them, analyzed data, wrote a description of my first five week intervention period, updated both my team and personal web pages, viewed slideshows about several more new initiatives and was encouraged, in lieu of training, to "play around with" them to familiarize myself their features, and assisted colleagues both new and experienced in troubleshooting their own work in all of these areas.

Wait. What?

You want me to plan lessons and teach students, too?

School Daze Chapter 4: The 3rd Shift

Oy vey! What a day! After completing my regular job, you know the one where I try to bend a hundred strong-minded young adolescents to my will, and make them think it is all their idea, I had a meeting where I tried to bend one strong-minded colleague to my will, but she was having none of it. Later, I conducted an overview session of the online course about young adolescents that I teach for 20 tired teachers, most of whom, like I, had Back-to-school Night tonight. At 5:30 I dashed home and actually cooked dinner, ate it, and cleaned up the kitchen before changing my clothes and heading back to school. Of course there was no parking, so I pulled in by the tennis courts and hoofed it two blocks to the building where I just barely beat the first of the families arriving for the evening's festivities. Two hours and six twelve-minute presentations later, I slipped off the loafers that were pinching my feet and walked barefoot back to my car, only stubbing my toe that once.

Dodging Bullets

On the day after Back-to-School Night, we teachers often sit yawning and around trading war stories. In addition to the majority of perfectly nice people, there's always that parent who wouldn't leave, the one who was rather aggressive in their questions, or someone who was simply bizarre. At the close of my 23rd BtSN, I had seen them all, but not last night.

All my parents were very well-behaved, particularly the couple who had both previously been my students. They listened politely and even seemed to appreciate my humor. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the other teachers on my team. To my surprise, my colleagues all reported questions, push-back, and follow-up emails from the very same parents who were so tame in my class.

I guess seniority does have its privileges!

Fifth Time's a Charm

I had just shut the projector off after my final class presentation at Back-to-school night when a parent I had met last week knocked sheepishly on my open door. " I don't know what happened!" she confessed. She gestured to her husband who was blushing a bit. "We were totally lunchin' and we ended up cutting your class!"

I laughed and shrugged. "No worries," I said, "it's not required."

"Is there any work we can make up?" she asked.

"Sure," I said handing them the course description. "Let me hit the highlights." As I went over my talking points one more time with an audience of two, they were open and generous with their questions and feedback.

"That is so cool," the mom said at the end. "I'm so glad she's in this class!"

And I was so glad I stayed a little later than I planned.

BSN Fantasies

Having just finished my 21st back-to-school night I arrived home with mixed emotions. Relief, certainly, that it was over, and happy, because it was kind of fun seeing former parents, some who have become old friends; I've been at my school long enough to have established a history.

Once again, though, I was mostly disappointed in my presentation. It's very hard to distill a year of English into a ten-minute presentation. I always feel like I have been long-winded and worse, boring. Every year I vow to find the perfect way to convey the essence of my class in a witty and enjoyable nine minutes, leaving just enough time for questions.

Or perhaps, applause?

Maybe next year.

Score Board

Back to School Night 20
Me 0

I just cannot make my presentation fit into 10 minutes!

Fortunately?

There's always next year.

Held After Class

Tonight was Back-to-School-Night which I'm pretty sure is dreaded by all educators. For myself, I have to give the same overview five times in a row, and try as I might, I cannot come up with a way to make it anything more than ten minutes of rushed talking. I think I sound competent, though, after all these years, but sometimes I wish it were more of a conversation than a presentation.

But I must be careful what I wish for. Long after the last class was dismissed for the night, I found myself in conversation with a very enthusiastic parent. Clearly impressed by some part of my talk, he chatted on about his own reading and his own writing in what might have been a pleasant enough exchange were it not for the hour and the purpose of the event.

On the Same Side

The other evening was Back to School Night and it's always kind of interesting to meet the parents after knowing their kids for a couple of weeks. Sometimes there are surprises, but generally it's nice to put a face to the moms and dads. As for myself, in the very short time we have, I try to give an overview of my course and leave them with a good impression along with my contact information.

The next morning, one of my students was insisting that he hates writing. I asked him to give our class some time to change his mind, and then I mentioned  that I had met his parents the night before. He rolled his eyes and sighed. "I know," he told me. "My mom said she liked you."

"Uh oh," I answered. "I liked her too. Guess you're in trouble now."

He went back to his desk and started to write.

Quick Question

Who likes back to School Night? I mean really?